Goddess of the Tides
by SaitouMiharu
Summary: While on a trip to the beach, Sven Vollfied ends up having to tell Eve why he fears the ocean, and meanwhile has to worry about capturing a thief named Scott Rae.


The Goddess of the Tides

A Black Cat Fanfic

By Saitou Miharu

The day couldn't have been clearer. Not a cloud in the sky, and on top of that, the tide was low, meaning a vast expanse of sand existed between the tourists and the clear blue water. Sven Vollfied, reclining against a beach umbrella, lit a cigarette and took a very long drag. He glanced down at the poster in his hands.

"Scott Rae..." he murmured. "The famous beach thief. Known for stealing purses and wallets while their owners are in the water." He crumpled up the paper and threw it into a nearby trash can.

"One million yen... Scott Rae, I am ready for you."

"Sven-chaaaan!" Someone called.

Sven replied without looking. "What is it, Train?"

Black Cat crossed the shifting sand and stopped in front of the gentleman. "The princess and I want you to come into the water with us!" He scratched his head and laughed. "You'll need a swimsuit, though..."

"I'm trying to catch a criminal here." Sven stood and straightened to his full height. His eyes were exactly level with Train's. "Where's Eve?"

"She's looking for fish. Ever since she read that book about snorkeling, she's been all over it."

The gentleman shook his head-- Train was too irresponsible. "Well, be sure to keep an eye on her, alright, Train? It'd be bad if someone found out about her power..."

"Why don't you help me keep an eye on her?" Train shot Sven a sad-kitty look.

"I, uh..." Sven racked his brain for a suitable excuse. "I didn't bring a swimsuit."

"Hmm..." A strange look contorted Black Cat's face.

"What are you thinking?" Sven asked. But he had a strange feeling that he would find out soon enough...

"No way, Train! I'm not going out there in this!"

"Hey, at least it's not a speedo or anything. C'mon, Sven, the princess is waiting, and the sooner you get out there, the sooner you get it over with. If you don't hurry, Rae will escape."

The gentleman's visible eye widened. _Crap,_ he thought, _Train is right!_

In one swift movement, Train placed a hand on Sven's left shoulder, and shoved hard. In the next instant, the gentleman was outside. He could feel people staring at him, and even though he knew he was probably imagining it, the blood slowly rushed to his face. "Are you okay, Sven-chan?"

"Yeah, I'm just dandy, Train." Sven scowled. Black Cat laughed.

Eve approached the two men and carefully examined Sven. "You look good, Sven." she said quietly, with a slight smile.

"Good?" Sven turned to glare at Train. "This guy here dragged me into a changing room, _swapped clothes_ with me, and then forced me out in front of the viewing world!"

Train, wearing the gentleman's white suit and hat, laughed and replied, "I'll be on the lookout for Rae. You go have some fun with the little princess." And with that he was gone. Sven couldn't help but sulk.

"Do you not like the ocean, Sven?" Eve asked.

"Uh, I had a bad experience once." He shrugged. "But don't let me ruin your fun. So... what do you want to do, Eve?" He felt a twinge of dread as he waited for her answer.

The girl smiled brightly. "I want to take pictures of the fish!"

"So... have you been transforming into a mermaid or something?"

"No, actually. I'm trying not to use my nanomachines too much. Otherwise I'll lose my energy too quickly." She held up a mask and snorkel. "I've been using these, but I keep choking on water..."

"Hey, I think I have something we can use in my attaché case. Wait here." The gentleman began to tear off in the direction of the red umbrella, only to stop when he heard a loud cracking sound. He fell to his knees. "It think I just dislocated something." he whispered to Eve.

The child laughed softly, but not in a mocking way. Her laugh was strangely musical. Sven stood back up and limped to where Train sat, still wearing the gentleman's clothes. "How do you move in these things, Sven?"

Sven scowled. "How do you move in_ these?_" He gestured angrily to the trunks Train had forced on him. "I just tried to run over here and dislocated my groin!"

Black Cat laughed. "What do you need? Besides a paramedic, I mean."

"My attaché case." Sven reached out a hand and took the handle of the weapons case. "Do you remember when we met Professor Tearju?"

"Yeah."

"She gave me a small bottle of nanomachines that allow you to breathe underwater." The gentleman laughed softly. "I figured Eve would have a lot of fun with it."

"Isn't she using her own nanomachines?"

"No, she's being responsible. Unlike someone I could mention."

Sven met Eve half-way across the beach, and after they'd both swallowed a small blue sphere, they waded through the water. The gentleman, unlike Eve, was wondering if they even worked, and was shocked into movement when Eve went under and didn't come back up. "Eve!" he shouted. No response.

He figured he had two choices: dive into the water and become a hero, or scream for a lifeguard. Without really thinking, the gentleman's head slipped beneath the calm surface, and found Eve-- waving and smiling. Sven breathed a huge sigh of relief before realizing that the nanomachines had worked-- he was breathing underwater!

With large, awkward movements, Sven paddled farther down, until he was about at eye-level with Eve. "Isn't this fun, Sven?" she asked.

"Yeah." Even so, the gentleman couldn't help but look around uneasily.

"Tell me what happened, Sven."

The man's visible eye widened.

"Tell me what happened." Eve repeated softly.

Sven sighed-- he knew he wasn't about to get out of this one. "While I was still on my own as a sweeper, and I hadn't met Train yet, I went to a beach to capture a criminal named Levi Morgan." He looked away from the girl and closed his eyes. "When he realized I was tailing him, he made a break for the water. It was really stormy that night, and I could hear thunder in the distance, but I swam after him anyway."

Eve nodded, her eyes saying, _Go on._

"By the time I'd caught up with him, he'd fallen unconscious and was drowning. I took him and tried to make it to shore, but the current was too strong." He forced a weak smile. "When I woke up, I was on the shore, it was morning, a thousand people were clustered around me, and Morgan was dead. Apparently I'd been pushed back to shore by the waves, but it was only by dumb luck that I survived."

For a moment, neither spoke. Eve took in the gentleman's words slowly. "The criminal... died?"

"Yeah, he had drowned while I was unconscious." The words stung him as they tumbled from his mouth, but he wasn't about to take them back. "Levi Morgan died, and the suitcase full of money he was carrying was never recovered."

"But it _was_ recovered." Eve's eyes were sad. "Sven, Torneo sent me to find that case, and I found it. But that's not the only thing I found... I found you, Sven. I remember your white hat, and your eye patch had come off. I brought you back to shore."

Silence. After a few seconds, Sven's lips curved into a smile, and he whispered, "I remember telling Train it was the Goddess of the Tides that saved me." He looked up and closed his eyes. "It wasn't dumb luck that saved me, Eve-- it was you."

In one motion, Sven pushed off from within the water, and wrapped his arms around Eve. "Thank-you."

Suddenly the sweeper couldn't breathe. _What...?_

_Eve,_ he mouthed, _I think the nanomachine is wearing off!_

She nodded, and the two pushed back to the surface. Sven gasped and sucked in a breath as he felt the cool air on his face.

"Sven." Eve whispered. "Look at the shore."

The gentleman turned his attention to the shoreline, where a tall, lanky man ran across a long strip of sand, holding a purse. A woman shouted after him, "Stop! Thief!"

Immediately Sven paddled hard and fast toward shore. And even though he was pushing himself as hard as he could, it was obvious that he wouldn't make it in time. Train and Sven were very fast runners, but Train was asleep on the shore, and Sven was too far away.

Thinking quickly, Sven pressed a button on the side of his silver attaché case, and as the case released a large net into the water, the sweeper was launched forward and was moving toward the shore twice as fast as before.

By the time he'd reached the shore, Rae was already a good bit away, but Sven knew he could catch the criminal with some extra help. He sprinted as fast he could in Train's trunks, his dislocation complaining as he did, and managed to catch up to the man.

"I am placing you under arrest." Sven panted. He placed a hand on the man's shoulder, which he quickly shook off.

"I'm not going to prison! Not yet!" The criminal cackled slyly and removed a gun from its holster, which he quickly cocked and fired in Sven's direction.

The sweeper raised his silver case and blocked the bullet. "Give it up, Rae, I'm ready to turn you in."

Now the two men were standing about ten feet apart on the shore. Rae eased his pressure on one leg and increased it on the other, prepared to run away, but stopped when he noticed the sweeper was doing the same thing. _He's obviously a faster runner, _Rae thought. _I'll be caught for sure if I run._

So he held up his hands and said, "I give." But in the same instant, smoke filled the salty air, and Sven coughed and gagged as he scanned the clouded beach for Rae.

_I didn't want to do this..._

Swiftly, the gentleman raised a hand and removed the eye patch from over his eye.

_But I guess the chivalrous know no rest._

His right eye flared and burned as he stared ahead and through the smoke. He could see Rae running quickly away, making a mad dash for the parking lot. But the sweeper could foresee his movements.

Rae jumped when he heard a sly voice from behind him: "I can foresee... your defeat."

Instantly Rae fell to his face on the pavement, and he could feel the gravel scraping against his left cheek. Sven, who was wearing only Train's trunks, gasped out in pain as he tackled the man to the ground, as both his ankles and knees had been heavily cut by the parking lot floor.

Rae tried to take this opportunity to escape, but the sweeper's hand flashed out and seized his collar. Rae turned to look the gentleman in the face, and as he did, noticed that blood dripped from both his legs and a cut on his face. Sven was panting fiercely.

Eve quickly rushed over and took hold of the criminal with her strong arms, but it wasn't necessary. The man was scared stiff from Sven's vision eye, and wasn't about to go anywhere.

The gentleman soon collapsed onto the pavement, falling first to his knees, and then to his face. He didn't get up. Eve smiled, whispering, "Good work, Sven."

But the celebration was short-lived. After Sven woke up, he received the bounty for the man from Train, which was quite a bit of cash. They decided to stay at the beach another day, but as Sven relaxed on the shore, policemen surrounded him.

"You are under arrest for suspicion of poaching, Sven Vollfied." one said.

"Poaching? I've never poached anything in my life! Not even an egg!!"

"You're the owner of this net, correct?" A stout policewoman raised the net from Sven's attaché case. "We had several witnesses reporting a man with an eye patch launching a net into the water. You're coming with us."

As Sven was dragged away, he shouted, "Train! Train!" But Black Cat was fast asleep. "C'mon, man, you're useless!!"

Several hours later, Sven returned from the police station, and found Train, still sleeping, under the red beach umbrella. Without a word, the gentleman raised his fist and punched him.

Black Cat instantly awakened. "Hey, what was that for?"

"Idiot." Sven sighed. "That was for being asleep half the time."

"You're one to talk, Sven-chan. Weren't you the one who fell asleep yesterday after using the vision eye?"

"That's different!" Sven shouted. "Sometimes I just don't understand you..."

"But we're both sweepers, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I guess that's true."

"And unlike most people, you and I can never return to the real world." Train gazed out over the water and sighed heavily. "You can't throw away the past. But you can look brightly ahead-- toward the future."

The gentleman smiled and glanced at Eve, building a tall sand castle.

"Yeah."


End file.
